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Actuallya well known engine builder out of Texas built the longblocks for Saleen. They were a family company that had been building motors for decades. There were stout for the era and Saleen had very few issues with the non supercharged cars that made an advertised 370 hp. The 94-95 OBD1 cars had less ability to tune than the 96 and up OBDII cars. It was never a piston slap problem but always a "tune" and mostly fuel issue. The hypernumatic pistons did not like the detonation and it was number 8 that usually gave up the ghost. Remember, centrifically supercharged engines were really still in their infancy back then like you pointed out. Yes, Saleen had been installing blowers on 302s for a few years but not in large numbers and not offering the huge ( 495-510 ) crank hp nums like they offered on the new S351. They simply just did not have the know how back then to offer reliable hp like that. Saleen was still a very small vehicle manufacturer back then. There was the Tim Allen influence and an and a private angel investor but overall it was just a couple of guys per car shoehorning those motor in there.
Bottom line was to make the "impact" they needed to they had to offer a big number like 495 hp. When you take a truck motor that makes huge amounts of torque at low rpm and then bolt a Vortech S-trim on top that only makes it's power at higher rpm and have trouble getting it fuel at that level including air you have detonation,the recipe for disaster. I could go on but you can see what the main problems were. Anyone can make huge unsafe hp and risk tragedy everytime you hammer the throttle. The tune that the 94-95 cars received were on the ragged edge. They did make the HP but at a price. That's the chance they took and got away with it for a couple of years. There are plenty of guys out there with 96 and up S351's with few problems and drive them regularly.
Remember, these cars, the R-Codes ( supercharged 94-95's ) after gas guzzler, a few extras were in the mid $60,000 range back then. Don't ask me to adjust for inflation but you can see that was big money. The demographic that could afford the car new rarely drove it anyway therefore stayed out of the throttle. That's my opinion why we didn't see as many blown motors as we did. For example, I bought my first 95 S351 R-Code from a physician that only put 4,600 miles on it in 5 years and of course 93 octane as he was back East. Needless to say he lost half of his investment and I picked it up for less than half price. The window sticker if I remember was around $63K. It's the second and third owners that want to drive these cars and use them to their potential and to blame for the failed motors. I am one of them.
When OBDII arrived in 1996 Saleen created what we call the "97 upgrade" but was musch more of a "fix" for as many of the 94-95 cars owners that requested or threatened you know whats. The new recipe included removal of the FMU, T-rex inline fuel pump, larger in tank, new stainless fuel line, larger fuel rails, powerpipe, mass air sensor, tune and so on. It was just the evolution and learning curve. That poor frankenstein cutrunner added early Cobra intake with or without the mod falls on it's face around 4,500 -5000 rpm. You can see why they had problems when that's just about the rpm you start making good boost with an s-trim. They were able to tune around a few of these problems and by the time we started to see really nice TFS or AFRcylinderheads and That TrickFlow box or track R intake the program was squashed. Trust me, they really tried to continue to offer that car but the EPA just kept slamming the door. You should hear the stories about being locked in a sealed room with multiple temperature sensors trying to keep the heat down from this car. Joe who owns Chicane Sport Tuning was instrumental in items like his Double Pass radiator, wrapping fuel line around the freon canister, fuel tank fans and so on to keep the temperatures down. 99 was the last year even though there are a few 2000 chassis cars out there.
Bottom line it was a fantastic idea and Saleen did the very best they could to offer that car to the public. Who else was offering a 500 hp car back then that you could buy new from a Ford dealer. The car will continue to be legendary to Ford fans. If you build the bottom end, have the supporting fuel delivery and get the car to breath the car can be very reliable. Still not a daily driver formany reasons but truly an American beast and ballsy move back them from a tiny small volume maunfacturer from Southern California that wanted to show the world what he could do.
Hope that helps.
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Tacky, just plain tacky IMO.Nice car indeed, but trophies belong on a shelf or in a case...in your garage, not displayed in front of your car [:'(] Show your car so others can enjoyit, don't put your trophies out as if to compensate for a small penis.Oh, did I say that out loud [8D]
Say When, thanks for the readers digest version and the loved your points on how "ballys" the effort was for the time.
Couldn't have said it better myslef. Kudos.
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RE: 99 S351
